Disk-washer.



M. LEITCH.

DISK WASHER. APPLICATION FILED ms. 211, Hill.

1 ,264, 1 92 Patented Apr. 30, 1918.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

Attorney.

M. LEITCH.

DISK WASHER. APPLICATION FILED res. 2a. 19:].

1,264, 1 92. Patented Apr. 30, 1918.

2 SHEE1S-SHEET 2'.

l; 77 f A i 1 0 0 1 n I:o 0 0 I o Witness,- Inventor:

Attorney.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MEREDITH LEITCH, 0F POUGI-IKEEPSIE, NEW YORK, ASBIGNOR TO THE DE LAVAL SEPARATOR COMPANY, OF

NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

DISK-WASHER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 30, 1918.

Application filed February 28, 1917. Serial No. 151,396.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, Mnnnorrn LErrcH, a citizen of the United States, residin at Poughkeepsie, county of Dutchess, and tate of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Disk-Washers,of which the followin is a full, clear, and exact description, re erence being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

In cleaning the disks from a. centrifugal cream separator, they should be first washed in cool or lukewarm water, then in hot water to which an alkali has been added and finally rinsed in boiling hot cleanwater. It is readily understoodthat the hands of the operator should not be brought in contact with either of the latter two waters.

The object of this invention is to provide a device to which the disks of a separator may be readily transferred and by means of which they can be thoroughly washed with out it being necessary for the operators hands to come in contact with the washing water.

I am aware that attempts have been made to accomplish this purpose b rapidly rotating the disks in a ail 0 water or by stringing the set of dis s upon one or more rods and moving them up and down in a tank. With any of these, the outer edges of the disks may be washed, but not enough water will pass between the disks to do effective washing there.

In the drawin s, which show preferred embodiments of t e invention:

Fi re 1 is a sectional elevation showing the isks strung upon the Washer and inserted within the washing vessel.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the Washer with piston removed.

Figs. 3 and 4 are cations;

Fig. 5 is a Fig. 4.

Each of a set of disks a has (say) three holes which, when the disks are in osition on the disk-carrying member of te bowl (not shown), are in alinement with the holes in the disks above and below it. Three arallel rods 6 are, at their upper ends, ent inward, and thence downward into engagement with a head 0, thereby affording a banany similar views of modifisection on the line 5-5 of dle to facilitate grasping the rods as a unit from them. A little and readily inserting them into the holes in,

the disks. Near the lower end is a notch cl. A piston e, preferably of a larger diameter than the disks and which may, if desired, be of approximately the same shape as the disks, is -rovided with means to engage thenotches in the rods 6. Connected to the piston is a tubular extension I having numerous holes g through its sides. A tank h of slightly larger size than the piston e is desirable for the most rapid Washing.

After the bowl shell has been removed andbefore the disks are removed from the disk-carrying member of the bowl, the rods are inserted in the holes through the disks and the disk carrier and rods'inverted. The disks will then slide off the carrier along the rods toward the head 0. If the piston e is then pressed against the free ends of the rods, it will force them apart until the notches on the rods are engaged. The washer, with the disks thereon, is now a ain restored to its upright position, the isks sliding down the rods toward the piston e, as shown in Fig. 1. The washer and disks may then be inserted into the can It, which has been previously half filled with cool or lukewarm water. When the piston is forced downward the water Will pass up into the tubular extension of the pistonand outward through the holes 9 with great force. Its resulting high velocitvwill cause it to pass between the disks, and remove all loose milk and cream. The water may then be replaced with hot water containing an alkaline washing compound, and this, forced through the disks bv a few strokes, will remove all grease rinsing in the same manner with boiling hot water will leave the disks clean and they may be separated on the rods I), placed in a horizontal position, to dry. After the disks are dry they may be replaced on the disk-carrying member of the bowl by areversal of the operations by which they were removed.

It is desirable the set of rods of each rod though not essential, that e provided at some point with an indicator, as the notch shown in one of the rods at i, which should be placed in line with some Indicator on the disk-carrying member so that disks may be always replaced in the same position.

Though the action is much better when the piston is operated in p can only slightly larger than itself a lessi'apid washing may be accomplished by moving the piston and disks quickly up and down in any water container.

Instead of securing the rods to the head that serves as a handle and making them detachable from the piston. I may secure the rods to the piston and make the head or handle detachable. Thus, in Fi 3, the rods m are bent at their lower on and secured to the piston 41. and are notched at their 11 per ends to engage the head 0. In using t is washer the dislocarrying member of the bowl should be inverted on a table and the disks allowed to slide off straight so as not to be disarrangcd. The rods m may then he inserted in. the holes and the washer with the disks on it inverted, causing the disks to slide against the piston. The head 0 may then be attached and the washing proceeded with in the same manner as when using the washer shown in Fig. 1.

In order to obtain the maximum force through the jets the piston 'n should fit closely in the washing can, but in order to have the piston easily raised provision should be made for a free passage of water downward past the piston. A valve mcinher '1) held to the piston by guides to will, during upward movement of the piston, assume the position shown in the drawing and allow water to freely follow the path indicated by the arrows but, during downward movement, will be forced against the bottom ofthe piston closing the free passage and causing the Water to pass through the jets.

In Fig. 4 is shown a. washer having for a handle, a single U-shaped rod insertilile within the alimng central orifices of the disks. The ends of the rod are s cured to the piston s in the same way that. the lower ends of the rods m are secured to the piston n. A shorter rod t is secured to the piston s and enters a set of alining orihces in the disks, this rod alone serving it: keep the disks in alinement. In using this asher it is placed upright on a table. he set of disks is lifted bodily from the disk-carrying member of the bowl and placed with their alining central orifices around the rods r and one set of alining small holes around the rod t. The disks, after being nashed in the same manner as with the washer of Fig. 1,

may be replaced on the disk carrier by a reversal of the process of removal.

Havin now fully described my invention, what I t esire to claim and protect by Letters Patent is:

1. In a washer for the centrally orificed fi'usto-conical disks of a centrifugal separator, the combination with a disk-supporting device comprising rods upon which the disks may be strung and supported in correct alinement, of a piston applied to one end of the disk-supporting device in such position as to extend within the concavity oi the outermost disk when the nest of disks is slipped onto such end oi the disk-supporting device, and a hollow orificed extension on said piston adapted to extend within the central orifices ot' the disks and along a relatively short length of the disk-supporting device.

2. In a washer for the centrally orificed frusto-eonical disks of a centrifugal separator, the. combination with adisk-supporb ing device comprising rods upon which the disks may be strung and members at respective opposite ends of said disk-supporting device, one of said members allowing the device to be grasped and manipulated by hand, the other of said members comprising a piston adapted to extend within the concavity of the outermost disk when the nest of disks is strung upon the rods, and means detachably securing one of said members to the rods to permit said member to be removed and the disks to be strung upon the rods.

3. In a washer for the centrally orificed frusto-conical disks of a centrifugal separator, the eon'ibiimtion with a disk-supporting device comprising rods upon which a set of frusto-conical disks may be strung, and a liquid-distril'niting device at one end of the rods, comprising a piston having a hollow perforated tubular extension, said distributing device adapted to extend in front; of the concavity of the outermost. disk of the set and within the central orifices of the disks and along'a relatively short length of the disk-supporting device.

In testimony of which invention, I have hereunto set my hand, at Poughkeepsic, N. 11. on this 24th day of lfiebruary, 1917.

MERE [)I'lll LEITGH. 

